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Digital Currency Group Collaborates with Amazon Web Services to Help Bring Enterprises and Blockchain Startups Together

Posted by, admin on May 1, 2016

Digital Currency Group (DCG) today announced a collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Inc., that enables enterprises to better leverage the value of blockchain technology. Blockchain – also known as distributed ledger technology (DLT) – has seen a significant amount of interest and investment from financial institutions, insurance companies, and enterprise technology companies. This collaboration enables blockchain providers to work with their corporate customers more efficiently by providing an accessible, secure platform that facilitates experimentation with this technology on the AWS Cloud.

Removing Friction from Experimentation

The collaboration aims to make experimentation with blockchain frictionless for both consumers of blockchain applications and those who provide them. DCG’s work with its portfolio companies and its corporate partners through discussions, workshops, and working groups on use cases for distributed ledger technology identified a need for blockchain providers to be able to interact with corporate customers in trusted environments. AWS’s extensive work with both blockchain providers and enterprises trying to integrate DLT solutions into their operations identified an opportunity to better facilitate interaction between those customers, while fostering innovation. Enterprises working with DCG and its portfolio companies for their expertise in blockchain will have access to cloud services and technical resources from AWS in support of blockchain experiments.

“Today in Financial Services, distributed ledger technology is at the forefront of any discussion related to innovation. AWS is working with financial institutions and blockchain providers to spur innovation and facilitate frictionless experimentation,” stated Scott Mullins, Head of Worldwide Financial Services Business Development, Amazon Web Services, Inc.

“DCG is a recognized leader in DLT, and we are excited to work with them and their portfolio companies to provide laboratory environments for enterprise experimentation with blockchain technology on AWS.”

Supporting Growth and Scale through Technology

DCG has invested in over 70 bitcoin and blockchain companies to date, and has raised money from a broad group of investors including Mastercard, Western Union, Transamerica, CIBC, CME Group, and others. The firm has built a global network of startups, investors, and corporate partners who are bringing important skills and insights to bear in the development of new products and technologies in the blockchain ecosystem.

“At DCG, one of our fundamental beliefs is that the venture capital (VC) model has to evolve to enable disruption in financial services, and AWS was a natural collaborator given most of our portfolio relies on the AWS Cloud,” says DCG’s Director of Community, Meltem Demirors.

“As we thought about how to help portfolio companies grow and scale while simultaneously supporting corporate discovery and experimentation, it became clear that we would need to collaborate with a technology infrastructure provider like AWS to help us build a platform for experimentation.”

DCG will facilitate experimentation with blockchain technology for enterprises with proctored experiments conducted by DCG and its partners on the AWS Cloud on secure, stable, and access-controlled development, test and production environments. DCG companies that leverage AWS to power their businesses and conduct blockchain experiments for enterprise customers include BigchainDB, Blockstream, Chain, Everledger, Onename, and RSK Labs (Rootstock), and DCG expects this will only grow over time. Enterprises collaborating with DCG and its portfolio companies for their expertise in blockchain will also have access to cloud services and technical resources from AWS in support of blockchain experiments.

Adam Ludwin, CEO of Chain, a DCG portfolio company whose investors include Visa, Nasdaq, and Citi, said

“Several of our customers run Chain software, including the industry-leading Chain Sandbox prototyping environment, on AWS today. So we were thrilled when AWS and DCG cooperated to bring additional resources and focus to enabling blockchain services on AWS.”

Leanne Kemp, the CEO of Everledger, also a DCG portfolio company stated, “For startups building scalable solutions on the foundation of secure data, AWS infrastructure is key in helping meet requirements for even the most security sensitive organizations.

Our business is built on protecting the provenance of high-value items, from diamonds to any luxury good, and as we expand to new markets our work on AWS will be paramount for our continued growth and collaboration with organizations, institutions and governing bodies around the world.”

DCG and its portfolio companies are excited to have the support and expertise of the AWS team in building a new model for innovation – one that leverages the knowledge and flexibility of the startup with the domain expertise and human capital of the enterprise to make new technology accessible.

How to Get Involved

If you are an enterprise and you’re interested in learning more about how to enable your organization to experiment with bitcoin and blockchain technology through this platform, please contact Meltem Demirors via info@dcg-insights.co for more information.

About DCGAt Digital Currency Group (DCG), we build and support bitcoin and blockchain companies by leveraging our insights, network, and access to capital. Based in New York City, DCG has been an active seed investor in the digital currency industry with over 70 investments in 20 countries.

About ChainChain partners with leading financial institutions to deploy blockchain networks that transform markets. Chain’s technology is built for high scale use cases that require bank grade security and privacy. Their projects span banking, payments, and capital markets. Chain has raised $44M from investors including Nasdaq, Visa, Citi, Fiserv, Orange, and Capital One.

About EverledgerEverledger provides an immutable ledger for diamond identification and transaction verification for various stakeholders, from insurance companies to claimants and law enforcement agencies.